Drapery hook construction



Filed Jan. 2, 1959 N R R mm Wm NT. m f m R m A A T TORNEY Patented Oct..10, 1961 I 3,003,210 DRA-PERY 1100K CONSTRUCWIQN Andrew F. Wintercorn,Rockford, Ill., assignor to Western .Newell Mfg. (10., -Freeport, IlL,a=conporatiomof Illinois Filed Jan. 2, 1959,Ser..No. 7845649 4 Claims.(Cl. 24-84) This invention relates to a new and improved drapery hookconstruction, and is more particularly concerned with'improvements inthe general type of draperyhook disclosed in Perlmutter Patent No.2,553,272, ,issued May 15, 1951.

The principal object of my invention is to provide an improvedconstruction for drapery hooks of the kind mentioned whereby .the costof manufacture (is lowered and the resulting drapery hook is of .farmoreuniform characteristics in quantity production than was possible withthe earlier constructions, and there is much less likelihood of theshank portion of the supporting hook, which in theearlier constructionswas:merely spot-welded to the loweriend of the body of the drapery hook,.breaking off at the weld,'the present construction enabling .as long aweld as the strength required dictates and the line-weld also insuringgood alignment ofthe parts, whereas with a spot-weld the parts wereoften more or less misaligned.

The invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawing, in which-FIGS. 1 and 2 are a front view and side view, respectively, of a draperyhook made in accordance with the present invention and shown on anenlarged scale;

FIG. 2a is an enlarged sectional detail on the line a-a of FIGS. 1 and2;

FIG. 3 is a view of a drapery showing drapery hooks of the presentconstruction applied thereto, the hooks in this view being shownapproximately full size, and

FIG. 4 is a cross-section on the line 4-4 of FIG. 3.

The same reference numerals are applied to corresponding parts in theseviews.

Referring to the drawing, the reference numeral 5 designates theimproved drapery hook of my invention generally, the same comprising amain planar body portion 6 to which the upper turned-over hem or borderportion 7 of a drapery 8, having the usual spaced vertical lines ofstitching indicated at 9, is applied with the two closely spaced arms 10and 11 of the body 6 disposed on opposite sides of a line of stitching9, as appears in FIG. 3, the drapery hooks 5 being provided at uniformlyspaced intervals along the top of the drapery for the uniform supportthereof on a horizontal rod 12 in the usual way, namely, by means ofsupporting hooks 13 carried on the body 6 of the hooks 5 and slidablyengaging the rod 12.

In accordance with the present invention, the drapery hooks 5, insteadof having the body 6 thereof bent from a single piece of wire to providethe closely spaced supporting arms 10 and 11, has the body 6 formed bytwo identically formed interchangeable pieces of wire which, next to thedownwardly diverging lower end portions 14 and inwardly bent endportions 15 (that are used as attaching means in sewing the hooks ontothe drapery after entry in the hem portion 7 in the manner describedabove), have abutting parallel more or less elongated straightextensions or extremities 16 of predetermined length welded togetheralong the line 17 of abutment. The supporting hook 13, which is disposedin a plane at right angles to the plane of the body 6, is provided also,in accordance with my invention, just below the outwardly bent shankportion 18 and inwardly bent end portion 19 thereof, with a straight endextension or extremity 20 that is more or less elongated and of apredetermined length for abutment with and welding to extensions orextremities 16-16 of the two parts of the 'body 6 along the line w.Three important advantages are derived as a result of this construction:

':(l) The attaching end ,portion 20 of the supporting hook 13is assuredof good alignment with the abutting end portions 16 of the two parts ofthe body 6, because the end portion 20 lies in a 4crotch defined betweenthe end portions 16, as most clearly appears in FIG. 2a.

.(2) The more or 'less elongated line-weld, which can be of any suitableor preferred length, is much stronger and far more reliable than aspot-weld, and its strength is further increased as a result .of theextent to which the end portion 20 lies down in the crotch definedbetween the end portions 16, and is accordingly better supported againsttwisting or lateral displacement, accordingly relieving the line-weld oran appreciable portion of the strain that would otherwise have to beassumed directlyby the weld alone, and

.(3) The'back of the hook 13, which 'is Til-shaped, one side of the Vbeing the outwardly bent shank portion '18, has the apex of the -Vengaging in the crotch defined between the closely spaced arms 10 and 11of the body 6, and due to the fact that this crotch is longitudinallyaligned with the crotch defined between the extremities 16, as clearlyappears-in FIGS. 1 and 3, there is further assurance of good alignmentof the parts, and the hook I 13 when deflected away from the body 6 bythe material of the hem 7 will pinch the material between the hook andbody, as illustrated in FIG. 4, to hold the hook in place in the hemwell enough to make it unnecessary to sew the hook onto the drapery ifit is preferred to dis pense with such stitches. The V-shape of the backof the hook clearly shown in FIGS. 2 and 4 is advantageous both from thestandpoint of easier entry of the hem 7 between the hook and body andfrom the standpoint of tighter pinching of the material, because of theconcentration of pressure of the hook at one point.

In passing, it will be observed that the upper ends of the arms 10 and11 have outwardly bent loops 21 formed thereon defining there-between acrotch 22 for easy entry of the stitched portion of the hem 7 of thedrapery.

In the quantity production of the present drapery hooks 5, it is obviousthat an appreciable saving in die cost is realized as a result of theemployment of interchangeable, identically formed wire parts 10 and 11for the main body part of the drapery hook, and it goes without sayingthat this also contributes toward the closer uniformity of the endproduct in large quantity production of drapery hooks. There is,furthermore, no sacrifice in strength by reason of this two-piececonstruction of the body 6, inasmuch as the welding along the line 17indicated at w can he as long as required for the requisite strength anddurability of the drapery hooks 5. The line-welding of the elongated endextension 20 of the shank of the supporting hook 13 in the crotchdefined between the end portions 16 as also indicated at w (instead ofusing a spot-weld on a flat or round surface), further insures maximumstrength and durability and also much closer uniformity in the largequantity production of these drapery books.

It makes no difference whether the body 6 of the drapery hook 5 is madeup first as a sub-assembly, linewelding the end portions 16 togetheralong the line 17, and thereafter line-welding the end portion 20 of theshank of the supporting hook 13 to the sub-assembly, or whether the twoend portions 16 and the end portion 20 are held together in a fixtureand line-welded together in one welding operation, but the latterprocedure is considered the more economical and preferable.

It is believed the foregoing description conveys a good understanding ofthe objects and advantages of my invention. The appended claims havebeen drawn to cover all legitimate modifications and adaptations.

I claim:

1. A drapery hook comprising two equal lengths of stiif round wire whichserve as the two halves of an elongated vertical planar body, the twolengths of wire having straight elongated lower extremities lying inclose abutment and secured together by welding along the line ofabutment and defining an elongated crotch therebetween, the upper endportions of said wires being substantially vertical and disposed inclose parallel relationship to one another and constituting draperysupporting arms and defining therebetween another elongated crotch inlongitudinal alignment with the first mentioned crotch, and an elongatedvertical stiff round wire hook member for support of said body on ahorizontal rod, said hook member being disposed in a substantiallyvertical plane substantially perpendicular to the plane of said body andincluding a hook portion on the upper end facing downwardly andforwardly with respect to the supporting arms of said body with the backof said hook portion disposed in the crotch between said arms, said hookmember having a straight elongated attaching shank portion on the lowerextremity thereof that is entered in the first mentioned crotch andrigidly secured by welding to the first mentioned straight elongatedlower extremities along substantially the full length of said attachingshank portion.

2. A drapery hook as set forth in claim 1 wherein the two lengths ofwire forming the two halves of the elongated vertical planar body haveat the lower ends of the drapery supporting arms and above the weldedextremities downwardly diverging lower end portions and therebelowinwardly converging end portions in coplanar relationship to saiddrapery supporting arms adapted to serve as attaching portions which maybe fastened to the drapery material to secure the drapery hook to thedrapcry.

3. A drapery hook as set forth in claim 1 wherein the elongated verticalround wire hook member has the back portion of the hook shaped upper endportion generally V-shaped with the apex of the V disposed in the crotchdefined between the drapery supporting arms and with both sides of the Vextending in angular relationship to the plane of the body portion.

4. A drapery hook as set forth in claim 1 wherein the upper ends of thetwo lengths of wire forming the body are bent outwardly away from oneanother to form substantially circular loops on opposite sides of thecrotch defined between the drapery supporting arms in coplanarrelationship with the body portion.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS450,317 Munn Apr. 14, 1891 2,473,564 Bergren June 21, 1949 2,553,272Perlmutter May 15, 1951 2,607,977 Serrell Aug. 26, 1952 2,716,793Perlmutter Sept. 6, 1955 2,758,645 Sherman Aug. 14, 1956 2,779,404 HessJan. 29, 1957 rev

